Rethinking the Trailer Rollers

Posted By: Bob V
Date: 8/31/06 6:15a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Added 4th Roller to trailer (Jeff)

I've been meaning to take some pictures and post about this, but haven't gotten around to it. After reading on the Continuous Wave Whaler site that most of the weight should be distributed through the keel and that the roller procedure goes as follows, I started to rethink the arrangement: "With the boat off the trailer, drop the trailer's bunks down so they won't even touch the boat. Then check the alignment of the keel rollers. Sight the length of the straight section of your hull, then stretch a string over those rollers to make sure they all line up. The rollers where the hull starts to curve up to the bow are harder to adjust properly and involve some guess work." Since the straightest section of the 5.2 keel hits the aft three rollers, I put a line across them and firmed them up. When you do this, however, the front roller - nearest the tilt pin - has no chance whatsoever of hitting the boat, since the boat starts to curve up to the bow. And the roller isn't adjustable! I bought one of these - an adjustable keel roller bracket - for the forward roller. It now sits fully four inches above the old forward roller. The boat launches and loads *much* more easily now, and I am comfortable that the weight sits strongly on the keel. Before, I was trying to true the arrangement of the rollers to the forward roller, since it couldn't be adjusted. Hope this helps - Bob